UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE DIGITAL AGE AS ACADEMIC RESOURCES AMONG BIOLOGY EDUCATION STUDENTS IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Academic Resources, Biology Education Students, Digital Age, Social MediaAbstract
The study investigated the utilization of social media (SM) as academic resources among
Biology education students in Abia State Universities, adopting a descriptive survey research
design. 123 students randomly drawn from, the 1500 biology education students in, the two
universities served as the sample. A self-developed Questionnaire, face validated by experts
with reliability coefficient of 0.76 established using Cronbach Alpha, was used for data
collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test for significant
difference. Results revealed that MOUAU students indicated that Tiktok, Whatsapp and
facebook are highly useful SM platforms, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube are moderately
useful, while the other stated SM platforms are just useful. ABSU students, on the other hand,
indicated that Whatsapp and Facebook are highly useful, Tiktok and Youtube are moderately
useful while Flickr, Tumblr, Spotify, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Angel list and Crunchbase are not
useful. For frequency of usage; MOUAU students use Tiktok, Whatsapp and Facebook daily,
Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and Youtube several times in a week while other SM
platforms are used occasionally. ABSU students indicated that Tiktok and Whatsapp are used
daily, Snapchat and facebook, several times a week, Flickr is never used and other platforms
are used occasionally. Respondents, from both schools, indicated that Whatsapp and Facebook
are utilized (Very High Extent), Tiktok, Snap chat and Youtube (High Extent) and Other SM
platforms (Low extent). Also, a non-significant statistical difference was found in the extent of
utilization of SM platforms as academic resources between students in the two universities.
Recommendations were made among which is the need for educators to incorporate SM
platforms usage into their instructional methods to enhance student engagement and academic
achievement.
